Thursday, January 25, 2007

ENOUGH!! For God's sake, for Lebanon's sake STOP!

For the love of God and country, please STOP! No one is benefiting from this chaos, not any political party, not any religious faction, not any Lebanese patriot! What the hell is going on? Where are the people's conscience, common sense and sense of decency? Don't they know right from wrong anymore?

As of 08:30 tonight Lebanon's beloved capital is under curfew imposed by the Lebanese army with the consent of all political parties in response to the several riots, shootings and attacks taking place in the capital mainly between Sunni- Shiites. The situation is so critical that all schools and universities have been suspensed until next week, hoping that by that time things would have cooled down. We do not even know if we will be able to go to work come morning!

What happened today at the Arab University is unacceptable. Students held by force at their campus while snipers targeted them. Rocks and bullets targeting parents who have braved the dangers to rescue their children. Burning and destroying private properties while the army attempted to free the students using tanks no less.

All political leaders from opposing camps have called for calm and restraints. All have called on their respective supporters to leave the streets and comply to the army's directives. And still, the mobs have vandilized shops and cars, burned political flags and generally detained passers-by asking for their identity and their religion while wearing black ski masks!!

The Palestinian camps have even attacked the Lebanese army claiming that our army has no authority in their regions! Their regions! This is OUR land! OUR country!

Not one Lebanese benefits for these attacks so who is the pupeteer orchestrating these events? Who is infiltrating the crowds and taking advantage of the existing tensions to move the sensibilities of young, foolish and impulsive people into such actions? Who is coming up with the action plans and sending these kids out on the streets to terrorize and create mayhem? Who is providing them with the green light to further violate our beloved Lebanon?

How dared they bring political differences to the streets?

How dared they all presume to resolve any political conflicts by destruction, burning tires, preventing people from excercising their God's given right to have an opinion, excercise their freedom of speech or of religion or even make a living.

What happened on what is now known as "black Tuesday" is unacceptable. From ALL sides. Not one person, party, leader, protestor, or counter-protestor handled the situation right: Calling for a strike to express an opinion or for a show of popularity is a democratic step. But burning tires, creating road blocks and causing mayhem is dictatorship. However, sending a "counter-mob" on the streets to "stop" the protestors is irresponsible, criminal and frankly bordering on psychotic!

How dared they presume to take the law into their own hands and send their supporters on the streets to confront the protestors? How dared they presume to be so above the law that they took it upon themself to 'enforce' either a strike or an anti-strike? How dared they call upon their supporters to 'uphold order' as they deemed the governmental agencies inefficient to do their jobs?

And still, they wonder where this mob came from!? and how this day has come to pass?! Their political speeches in the last couple of days generated so much tensions and bad feelings that it had to be channeled somehow and the result was riots, vandalism and casualties.

But somehow today their tone changed. Where two days ago they were calling on their supporters to take to the streets and 'enforce order' where the army has in their opinions 'failed', today they are calling on their supporters to leave the streets and abide by the army's directives. THEY are the cause of this confusion, mixed messages and chaos. And THEY should take responsibility for the destruction and deaths.

And when I say "they", I mean ALL leaders. No exceptions.

STOP trading accusations! STOP the insults and finger pointing! STOP the media from being so damned BIASED! Its RIDICULOUS that we have to flip channels to try to extrapulate a little bit of truth or have a piece of real news. Its ridiculous that no one really cares about this country, its citizens or the unemployed generation leaving or hoping to leave this beautiful land. It is ridiculous that when a business is burned down to the ground as a result of riots it is fined in the millions of USD and when confronted with the fact the Honorable Minister of Finance replies that "there is nothing he can do about the problem". It is ridiculous that we are destroying ourselves with our own hands and we cannot to do anything about it as if hypothesized. It is ridiculous that when so-called leaders admit knoweldge of a 'plan' to create mayhem and divisions within us and when we are at a cross-road of either falling wihin this plan or resisting, we seem to fall right into the pupeteer's hands. It is ridiculous that we comply to so-called leaders' veiled statments like sheep, cows, moutons and any other type of bovins and head to the streets as nothing less than stampedes destroying everything on our paths and everyone we 'think' belongs to the opposing camps. Its is ridiculous that so-called leaders turn a blind eye and ear to the thousands of men and women sleeping in the tents in the cold in protest. It is ridiculous that so-called leaders actually call on their supporters to sleep in tents in the cold and its even more ridiculous that they have their calls answered!

Damnit! Everything is so ridiculous! And so senseless! and so unacceptable! I am so frustrated and confused I cannot even think straight!!

And all the while, Pr. Minister Siniora and his minions are enjoying Parisian hospitality and have gathered an additional $7.6 billions in new debts (which we will have to eventually pay back!). Lebanon's public debt had previously reached $41 billion, more than 180 percent of Gross Domestic Product. The country is dead socially and economically to say the least and Mr. Siniora is talking about increasing taxes!! Where the hell does he expect us to get money to pay these additional taxes? We can barely get by in the current situation where many companies have declared bankruptcy and most of my generation has left the country looking for better opportunities in foreign lands... How does he expect us to pay back all these debts, loans and 'grants'? Paris I, II, III (a.k.a. Rafik Hariri Donor Conference) and maybe heading to Paris IV?!

Nothing comes for free, everyone knows that! What will be our new price to pay this time?